Pak Awie: decent Malaysian restaurant in Paddington, London

The girlfriend and I decided to try Pak Awie Malaysian restaurant in Paddington, London, on the basis that Malaysians we know dine there. As it turned out, on the evening we went, the restaurant was almost completely full with Malays. That has to be a good sign, right?

Prices are reasonable and we were hungry (having done a lot of walking that day), so we decided to order four dishes plus two bowls of rice - a reasonable amount of food for two people.

The squid dish caught our eye on the menu, as it's not something we usually order when we visit the Malaysian restaurants found in China Town. We were really pleased; at first because of the quantity (there were two large squids), then that it was so soft, and thirdly because it was nice and spicy, though not overbearingly so.

Sambal sotong - stir-fried quid in ground chilli and dried shrimp paste.

We wanted a balanced meal so we ordered the kangkung belacan, a spinach dish in shrimp paste. As expected, the stems had a nice crunchy texture while the leaves were soft.

The next dish was like a curry, consisting of chicken on the bone in a coconut creamy sauce. The chicken was soft (as you'd expect from chicken on the bone) and the sauce went really well on our rice.

Chicken curry...sorry can't remember the name!

We also ordered the Malaysian omelette - telur dadar. This was a pretty simple dish consisting of egg and onions, so this went down well enough for what it is.

Telur dadar.

By the end of our mains, we were pretty stuffed, so we decided to share dessert. We ordered the sago gula malaka, which consists of sticky sago with coconut milk and brown sugar underneath. This was neither too sweet or creamy, so I quite liked it.

Sago gula malaka.

Overall I really enjoyed Pak Awie and it was comforting to know that there were so many Malays in the restaurant. I'll be eager to go again in the near future, perhaps trying some dishes I've had before at other Malaysian restaurants to see what differences there are.

Teh tarik - 'pulled tea'. Milky and sweet.

Closest Tube: Paddington